The field of the invention is apparatus and methods for treating muscles and neuromuscular pain conditions.
Muscle injuries and pain, common among athletes and manual laborers, occur in the general population, due to accidents, over-exertion, and/or poor ergodynamic and working conditions. These types of injuries occur often in the neck, arms, hip, back, and shoulders.
Traditional therapies, such as in muscle strengthening, the most common approach to physical therapy, have no proven effect and often aggravate the pain. Other techniques such as heat or ultrasound are passive and also unproven. Active stretching of the muscle is more effective but has been traditionally performed by physical manipulation of the patient by the therapist, often resulting in over-stretch and a reaction of muscle tightening.
When a muscle is acutely strained, as in a lifting injury, there is pain in the injured muscle until tightness, swelling, bleeding and inflammation subside. Muscles surrounding the injured area tighten up in order to splint the site and prevent further damage, and these surrounding muscles also become painful. In addition, the muscle stretch receptors, called muscle spindles, become contracted. This spindle spasm can become chronic if tension coexists causing a sympathetically-mediated activation of the spindle.
It has now been discovered that, in contrast to prior physical therapy practices which emphasize muscle strengthening and/or active stretching, muscle injury and pain conditions are more effectively prevented or treated by using body weight and gravity to stretch, preferably slowly stretch, the injured or painful muscle while surrounding muscles are maintained in a generally relaxed state. This is accomplished by placing the body in such a position that muscles other than the muscle to be treated are relaxed while the injured or painful muscle, for example, is placed in such a position that body weight, optionally assisted by the addition of further weight, can be used to accomplish the treatment stretch. This is preferably accomplished with novel equipment designed to promote this gravity or relaxed stretching. Examples of such equipment are described and claimed herein. This equipment also preferably includes a means for allowing the stretch to be accomplished slowly and for returning the stretched muscle to the starting position without voluntarily contracting said muscle. The muscle injury prevention and therapy machines described herein offer an appropriate amount of muscle stretch, to reduce the risk of injury or reinjury and provide longer lasting relief, and accelerated patient improvement. The patient, via actuators on the machines, can control the degree of stretch on the affected muscle and then return to a neutral position, while maintaining a relaxed state in a gravity-dependent position. By providing for the addition of further weight, in the form of independent weight devices (such as weighted pads), or a means for adding a weight or weights to the equipment itself (such as by a tubular bar for holding barbell-type weights, secured to that portion of the equipment which moves to permit the stretch) and a means for securing the muscle to be treated to the equipment (such as by a strap), the gravity stretch may be enhanced.